The Gentlemen of the Road stopover tour started off as a rather simple concept. Mumford & Sons would invite a few of their music-playing friends to travel with them. They’d stop over for the weekend in towns they’d never been to before, towns they had no reason to visit. They would play two days’ worth of gigs for people they’d probably not ever played for before.It was just a small, scattered list of dates in BFE. NBD. Somewhere along the way, it became something much different. And much bigger. The “stopover tour” now looks much more like a takeover tour.

“It’s more about the town than the music,” was a sentiment you could hear echoed all over town. From the security guards to the people charging fans $20 to park in their driveway near the festival grounds. And that is an accurate statement.

When the Gentlemen rolled into Troy on the very last weekend of August they did, indeed, take over the tiny town. They did everything possible to put Troy’s best foot forward. The city center, with the fountain that turns pink in June for a strawberry festival, was closed down. WACO airfield was turned into a magnificent parking lot. Multiple school districts sent school buses to help transport music lovers from the parking lot to just a few blocks away from the festival grounds. You never had to wait for a bus, there were always plenty. Why can’t school districts work their own bussing schedules so fluidly? Even the Wendy’s in the next town stayed open until 2 a.m. in order to cater to Mumford fans.

Mumford & Sons ran Troy’s economy. The bakery served a limited menu and from the window hung loaves of bread shaped like mustaches – the international symbol for “Folk band.” A seemingly otherwise unused storefront became Mumford Market, which sold strawberry donuts and other festival essentials. Every storefront had a purpose, featuring window art of the four Brits in charge, of their acoustic instruments or of that omnipresent mustache (it was even painted on the streets). Aside from the Troy High School football field, which held the main stage and the bulk of fest goers, there were still two small stages downtown and another handful of street performers littering the crowded streets.

Heck, they even took over the Troy Police Department. For a town as tiny as Troy, they can’t possibly have very many cops and it seemed like nearly all of them were roaming around inside the closed-off festival area. You know that hard-assed vibe cops often get, especially when pulling security detail? Troy cops were the nicest (and best looking) unit to pull security at a concert I've seen. One of the highlights of the festival was watching an older (clearly drunk) woman swat an officer’s backside with her tambourine. He was quick to whip around and give her a quirk of the brow. When she gave him a grin and a wink, he laughed, wagged his finger and carried on. Later, as the woman and her tambourine flirted endlessly with one of the security guards, the TPD watched with grins and amusement. Nothing more.

And that bout of tambourine-assisted sexual harassment? Probably one of the worst crimes committed during the festival. One of the stage security guards remarked at how surprisingly low-maintenance the crowd was and one of the police officers on duty was quick to agree that the out-of-towners were exceptionally well-behaved. All of his calls had been to deal with locals — and even those calls didn’t seem like anything noteworthy or unusual for a festival environment.

Mumford & Sons fans know how to be polite when overtaking a city.

The festival repaid fans by taking over their nature. When they bought their tickets for the stopover date, they were sent a wristband, a fancy holographic ticket and a passport. The passport held info about last year’s first ever stopover tour, the band, the best restaurants and scenes to check out while in the area. And, just like a real passport, there were places to have stamped. Certain restaurants and stores had stamps. Every performer had a person in a booth at the back of the stadium with a custom stamp. People walked the festival grounds” with the rubber stamp, ready to bequeath another ink splotch on each passport. It was a race to get them all. A chance to maybe, just maybe, win a prize or learn something new.

What you really want to know about is the music though, right?

The festival may have been more about the town than the music, but the music was still what drew thousands of people to Troy’s gorgeous city streets. It was, after all, a concert, and the music that took over Troy’s stadium needs to be discussed.

Friday was a short day, with the festivities not kicking off until after everyone had time to show up after work. Of course, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the Friday night headliners, were the clear draw for fans on Day 1. The Zeros have traveled with Mumford & Sons before, most notably on their "railroad revival" tour, and even released their newest album on the Communion label, a pet project of Mumford’s piano player, Ben Lovett. Technically, the band is solid. The only difference between their records and their live performances is the sheer amount of energy they bring to the stage. The group has fun on stage and that fun easily makes its way into the crowd. But if you’ve seen one Edward Sharpe concert, you’ve seen them all. If you haven’t ever seen them, then you’re missing out.

Saturday was magnificent, loud and the best kind of exhausting you could imagine. A little after lunch, the stage came to life with the lovely Indie Brit Rock band Bear’s Den (who will be back in Ohio to play Cincinnati's MidPoint Music Festival at the end of the month). They might have only kicked off the day, but their talent deserved a later slot. After Bear’s Den came Nashville’s Those Darlins, headed by Jessi Darlin, a wisp of a girl with a set of dragon-sized lungs. Rubblebucket, from Brooklyn, showed up next and bestowed upon festival goers all their weird, twitching energy. They’re awesome, but putting them before the decidedly more mellow (but still oh-so-awesome) Justin Townes Earle seemed a little ill-placed. It felt a little like revving the engine of a Mustang when you’re still three stop signs away from an open country road. Justin Townes Earle was brilliant, of course, but very laid back, and Rubblebucket left everyone pretty amped. On the upside, Earle’s joke about the Westboro Baptist Church earned him laughs.

Mumford & Sons also imported their friends, The Vaccines. Also hailing from England, The Vaccines’ lead singer Justin Young previously recorded on the Communion label as Jay Jay Pistolet, a far more tame version of the vintage Rock that evolved to make The Vaccines what they are today. This new creation doesn’t seem to get quite as much love from Communion’s heads as some of their other friends and that’s really a shame. The Vaccines are with Columbia now and blowing up in the U.K., but still floundering in America. They’re brilliant, though, and crowds eat them up. They sound gritty and much more Punk Rock than anything on the radio right now, but they could very easily end up on those playlists. They bring an insane amount of sexual energy to the stage, too. Remember that old Almost Famous quote about the fans “getting off?” One guttural bellow from Young ignited a crowd full of shrieks. The end of The Vaccines meant half the crowd needed a cigarette.

Earlier in the day, one of the security guards said he’d worried the concert would be full of Bluegrass bands, something he hated. So far, though, he liked what he had heard. He had no idea that after The Vaccines, things were about to get real blue, real fast. Old Crow Medicine Show are old pros by now. Not only have they toured with Mumford & Sons previously, but they’ve also been around for ages. Maybe that’s why their concerts always seem similar. They’re a blast and, if you know all their songs, you’ll be hoarse by the end of their set. But, at the end of the day, nothing changes much from concert to concert … not even the between-song banter.

Somewhere during the Old Crow set an older, surlier photographer made a comment that I caught just the tail-end of. He either said “They’re better than this” or “I’m better than this.” The answer to both of those sentimentswas the same, however. “Clearly Not.” If Old Crow were better than doing a clone show in a tiny town, then millions of people wouldn’t be singing along to “Wagon Wheel” right now and thinking it was by Darius freaking Rucker. And, if that photog were better than that festival, well, he wouldn’t have been there. Oh, the egos.

Mumford & Sons finally took the stage just as the sun was sinking down past the stadium, though we’d seen them during the set before when they crashed a few Old Crow songs. The first time I saw them was in 2010 at Beachland Ballroom. They sold out the 500-person capacity room and joked their way through the entire set. Not much has changed in those three years except the size of the crowd. As I bought a pair of Vaccines underwear from the merchandise barn (because, why not?), one of the boys added a sincere moment. Winston Marshall (I think. I was really far from the stage by then and trying to size underwear) told the fans there were a lot of people in America that the band loved “very, very much.” And that there were a few dickheads, too. Whether playing to a crowd of 500 or 50,000, the guys of Mumford know how to make each group of people feel awesome. Even if it’s just knowing to say, “O-H!” and grin when the Ohio crowd screams back the usual reply of, “I-O!” After all these years, they still really get a kick out of that trick.

Their performance was great, too. But it seems pointless to tell you that. At this point, Mumford & Sons have become so famous, so overplayed on the radio, you’ve no doubt already made up your mind about those four mates from London. Either you love them or you hate them. End of story. For me, the answer is love. I can respect a well-informed adverse opinion on the matter, however. So I won’t try to change your mind.

I walked back to my car as the Yacht Club DJs began their cool-down set after Mumford & Sons left the stage. Troy was quiet except for the bands and the revelers and drunks (so it wasn’t very quiet at all). But the town has a peaceful vibe to it and the band has always had a respectful sense to themselves that together kept everyone in check.

Would I do it again? Yes. But do I still absolutely hate festivals? Yes. Would I recommend the experience to anyone that made it this far in my review? Without hesitation, I recommend that you go visit Troy. And I will always tell everyone I meet that Mumford & Sons puts on the best show around and you should witness it once in your life. Whether you decide to hold out for their next stopover tour or settle for their next arena show, that’s up to you. Or, if you decide to wait a decade until the fuss dies down and they’re back to playing places like the Beachland or Bogart’s, I won’t judge you. I already know those gigs will be just as amazing.

Beginning Sept. 3 at the Art Academy of Cincinnati's Childlaw Gallery (1212 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine), the people behind the massive photography exhibition FotoFocus will set their lenses on the many great concert photographers in the region.

Reverberation: Capturing the Live Music Experience will coincide with the MidPoint Music Festival, located just off the 12th Street MidPoint Midway (the strip featuring vendors, food, live music the box truck carnival and much more). Hours will be extended during MPMF, with the exhibit staying open until 9 p.m. on Sept. 26 and 10 p.m. on Sept. 27-28. (Normal hours, starting Sept. 3, are 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Mondays-Fridays, and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays). The exhibit closes Sept. 29.

The work of 29 artists will be featured in the exhibit, including shots from legends like Melvin Grier (an award-winning photojournalist who shot many years for The Cincinnati Post) and Michael Wilson (whose portraits have been featured on the covers of albums by The Replacements, Over the Rhine, Lyle Lovett, Ron Sexmith and many others), as well as Maurice Mattei, Sean Hughes, Keith Klenowski and Kara Smarsh. (Click on the names to check out some of the artists' work.)

The Cincy Blues Fest returns for its 21st annual event this weekend

This weekend, the Cincy Blues Fest — presented annually by
the Cincy Blues Society — returns for its 21st year, a remarkable
accomplishment for a music festival of any sort. The festival kicks off
tonight and continues tomorrow at Sawyer Point along the riverfront.

The weekend features two main stage acts with serious ties
to Cincinnati’s Blues past. Educator, author, DJ, singer and harmonica
player Steven Tracy returns to Cincy to play the main stage on tonight
at 7 p.m. with his band the Crawling Kingsnakes. A Walnut Hills High
School graduate, Tracy worked with local Blues icons like Pigmeat
Jarrett and Big Joe Duskin, becoming a part of the scene he’d later dig
deeper into in the 1993 book, Going to Cincinnati: A History of the Blues in the Queen City.
His writing career is extensive — Tracy has written dozens of album
liner notes and edited/wrote/intro-ed several other books on a variety
of subjects. Today, Tracy is a professor of Afro-American Studies at
University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Saturday at 6 p.m. on the fest’s main stage, Stacy
Mitchhart and his band are slated to perform. Mitchhart grew up in
Cincinnati and spent time playing music on the East and West Coasts
before returning to his hometown in the early 1990s and forming Stacy
Mitchhart and Blues-U-Can-Use, a staple on the local Blues scene for a
few years. After a move to Nashville, Tenn., in the mid-’90s,
Mitchhart’s musical career really took off. His albums have been widely
acclaimed and done well commercially — his 2011 release, Live from B.B. King’s, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard
Blues charts — and he’s received high-praise for his showmanship and
remarkable Blues voice. In 2008, Mitchhart was the subject of the
well-received documentary NashVegas Blues.

Here is tonight's main stage schedule:

5:45-6:45 p.m. Dave Muskett

7:00-8:15 p.m. Steve Tracy & the Crawling Kingsnakes

8:30-10 p.m. Reba Russell Band

10:15-11:45 p.m. Watermelon Slim & the Workers

And here's the lineup for the Main Stage tomorrow:

4:15-4:45 p.m. Blues in the Schools (BITS) Band

5-5:45 p.m. The Juice

6-7 p.m. Stacy Mitchhart Band

7:15-8:30 p.m. Nikki Hill

8:45-10:00 p.m. Honey Island Swamp Band

10:15-11:45 p.m. Ana Popovic (all the way from Serbia!)

Some of the coolest things at the Cincy Blues Fest can be
found on the “specialty” stages — a “specialty” of the fest — which this
year includes a “Women of the Blues” stage on Friday, headlined by
national act EG Knight and also featuring locals Rio & The Ramblers,
The Juice and Tempted Souls Band.

Here is the "Women of the Blues" stage ((aka the Arches stage) schedule for tonight :

5:45-7 p.m. Rio & the Ramblers

7:15-8:30 p.m. The Juice

8:45-10:00 p.m. Tempted Souls Band

10:15-11:45 p.m. EG Kight

Saturday sees the return of the “Boogie Woogie Hall of
Fame Piano Stage,” featuring an international cast of top-shelf Boogie
Woogie pianists, including local favorite Ricky Nye and former locals
(now Florida-based) Liz Pennock & Dr. Blues. The house band for the
Boogie Woogie stage is Johnny Vidacovich (drums), George Bedard (guitar)
and Chris Douglas (bass).

The Blues Fest again presents the St. Vincent De Paul Local
Stage on both days of the event, always an excellent snapshot of the
current local Blues scene.

Friday's St. Vincent De Paul Local Stage schedule:

5:45-6:45 p.m. Thomas Long & Blue Sacrifice

7-8 p.m. Noah Wotherspoon Band

8:15-9:15 p.m. Ralph & the Rhythm Hounds

9:30-10:30 p.m. Brad Hatfield Band

10:45 p.m.-12 a.m. G Miles & the Hitmen

Saturday's St. Vincent De Paul Local Stage lineup:

4:30-5:30 p.m. The Blue Birds Big Band

5:45-6:45 p.m. Jay Jesse Johnson Band

7-8 p.m. The SoulFixers

8:15-9:15 p.m. Doug Hart Band

9:30-10:30 p.m. Chuck Brisbin & the Tuna Project

10:45 p.m.-12 a.m. Leroy Ellington Blues Band

Here is a map of the Blues Fest grounds:

Tickets are $15 for Friday, $20 for Saturday or $25 for a
two-day pass (tickets can be purchased at the gates or here). Visit
cincybluesfest.org for everything else you need to know about the
festival.

It’s no secret that Chicago is a great place for music.
Pretty much any touring band of note — and no doubt many a musical
outfit that need not be noted — is sure to include a Chicago stop, and
the city’s local scene remains rich and diverse, aided by a host of
nurturing venues and an eager, uncommonly discerning base of listeners.
That it’s only a five-hour drive from Cincinnati makes it an enticing
destination for those of us who yearn to catch shows that skip the Queen
City.

Chicago’s embarrassment of musical riches has only grown
in recent years with the addition of two high-profile three-day summer
festivals: Lollapalooza and Pitchfork. The former needs little
introduction — Perry Farrell’s unexpectedly fruitful brainchild is,
almost undeniably, the inspiration for the explosion of summer fests
over the last two decades, a trend that has grown even more robust since
the turn of the century. Every weekend each summer now features at
least one festival worthy of audiences’ ears. The trend has even reached
Cincinnati, where Bunbury just finished its second successful year —
and shared a headliner with Pitchfork. (Whether outdoor settings, marked
by often difficult weather conditions and bright sunlight, is the best
way to experience the type of music offered at such festivals is a
different question.)

Lollapalooza is, alongside behemoths Coachella and
Boonaroo, one of America’s biggest and best-attended summer fests,
boasting more than 130 artists and an audience in excess of 150,000.
Pitchfork, meanwhile, has quickly established itself as a singular
presence on the summer circuit, a discerningly curated endeavor that’s
an extension of the influential, taste-making webzine that runs it.
(Chicago-based Pitchfork.com took over the business side of the fest in
2006 after curating 2005’s initial gathering, which was then called the
Intonation Festival). Set in Union Park — a modest city-block space just
west of downtown Chicago — Pitchfork now features nearly 50 artists,
many of which are still unfamiliar to all but the most plugged-in Indie
music connoisseurs. (Ironically, as a champion of cutting-edge acts on
the way up, Pitchfork also serves as an early snapshot of future
Lollapalooza lineups.)

This year’s Pitchfork, which ran July 19-21, offered one
of its most curious lineups to date, especially as it pertains to the
headliners, which included Bjork, Belle and Sebastian and, somewhat
controversially, R. Kelly. Sure, there were several typically
lesser-known acts on the bill, but almost all of them graced the Blue
Stage, the smallest of the fest’s three stages. Whether this year’s more
accessible bill might have been a reaction to last year’s fest, which
gave relatively high-profile slots to such interesting but largely
faceless artists as AraabMuzik, Purity Ring, The Field, Big K.R.I.T.,
Hot Chip and Chavez, among others, is anyone’s guess, but a realignment
of sorts from Pitchfork’s powers that be seems plausible.

More proof of a possible shift in booking philosophy:
There were more veteran acts than ever this year. Beyond the headliners,
each of which has been making music for more than two decades, there
was Wire, The Breeders, Swans, … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of
Dead, Low and Yo La Tengo. The only comparable 2012 act in terms of
longevity — admittedly not the best gauge when it comes to creative
vitality, but we’re talking audience-drawers here — was Godspeed You
Black Emperor, which headlined along with Feist and Vampire Weekend. All
are solid acts, but none of them are likely to perk the senses of those
looking for a little “star power.” Enter Kelly, one of the era’s
preeminent hit-makers (more on that later).

As usual, many of Pitchfork 2013’s most interesting
artists emanated from the Blue Stage, which is the most intimate of the
fest’s three stages — the larger Green and Red stages (note the
refreshing lack of corporate branding, another sign of Pitchfork’s
discerning nature), which are but 50 yards (or so) apart, alternate acts
at the north end of Union Park, while Blue’s lineup overlaps with the
other two. Tucked into a tree-laden area of the park’s southwest corner,
the Blue Stage is something of a festival unto itself, its cozy
confines offering a break from the spacious, open-air spots where the
Green and Red reside.

Multiple Blue Stage artists delivered strong sets, including Frankie Rose, a former Dum Dum Girl whose latest album, Interstellar,
is a Synth Pop gem that wouldn’t sound out place alongside Beach House;
Mikal Cronin, a little ragamuffin of a guy whose latest album, MCII,
is a Power Pop keeper; Angel Olsen, whose Americana-flavored songs and
swoon-worthy voice and visage compelled much of the audience during her
late-afternoon slot; Metz, a Canadian trio coming to Cincy for this
year's MidPoint Music Festival in late September, whose terse songs
roared even more righteously in a live setting (think Nirvana on
fast-forward); Minnesota mainstays Low, who seemed oddly out of place
but still effective in the early evening light; and Trash Talk, a
Hardcore crew from Sacramento, Calif., whose long-haired frontman
delivered the funniest line of the fest after noticing a number of “old
people” in the relatively sparse Friday-afternoon crowd: “I like old
people. Old people make the world go around. They fucking had us and
shit.”

Best of all — or at least the biggest surprise — was
Brooklyn-based Post Punk quartet Parquet Courts, whose playful, twisty
tunes recall everyone from early Pavement to the Minutemen to a far less
trashed Guided by Voices. Frontman Andrew Savage’s voice is thin but
endearing, and his dynamic guitar interplay with fellow frontguy Austin
Brown had more than one rapt audience member shaking their ass in the
Saturday-afternoon sun.

One got the sense that the Parquet Courts dudes would have
been just as happy performing on the street corner just beyond the
fence behind them. The fact that they had a much bigger platform to
deliver their slanted gospel is just one example of what has made
Pitchfork so vital for those looking to experience something rawer and
less polished than the acts that dominate other festivals. (Go get
Parquet Court’s recent full-length, Light Up Gold, as soon as possible.)

Even the Blue Stage’s less successful performances were
compelling in one way or another: while Julia Holter, Ryan Hemsworth,
Andy Stott and Evian Christ — the latter three DJs who essentially stand
behind a table — have issues in the area of crowd interaction and
sometimes suffered from spotty sound mixes, each was able to convey its
mood-altering music in ways that, at the very least, provided sonic
respites from the relatively more conventional acts at the bigger
stages, whose roar often bled into the Blue’s.

On to the two main stages, which drew large, unusually
enthusiastic crowds all weekend. Long a champion of adventurous Hip Hop,
Pitchfork again featured some intriguing purveyors of the form, most
notably Sunday sets by Killer Mike and El-P. The pair released two of
the best albums of 2012, and their stellar recent collaboration, dubbed
Run the Jewels, dropped as a free download in June. After a sweaty set
in which Mike ran through songs from his R.A.P. Music — including
strong versions of the title track and the politically cutting “Reagan”
— he joined his buddy El-P for a batch of Run the Jewels cuts that
mixed verbal dexterity with a healthy dose of levity. Their record,
simply titled Run the Jewels, is something of a break from the duo’s doomsday aesthetic as solo artists — Jewels
is an exuberant, sonically diverse fun-ride that makes light of Hip
Hop’s silly preoccupation with bling (the two performed with fake gold
chains around their necks), among other Pop-culture oddities. (El-P
later tweeted, “I’ll just go ahead and say @pitchforkfest is the most
chill, fun ass festival around right now.)

Run the Jewels was an interesting transition into a set
from the ever-vital Yo La Tengo, which mixed choice cuts from its vast
back-catalog (including sweet reworked versions of “Autumn Sweater,”
“Tom Courtney” and “The Hour Grows Late”) with several tunes from the
New Jersey trio’s latest record, Fade. As usual, they didn’t
interact much with the crowd, though frontman Ira Kaplan, who dropped in
several impressive guitar freak-outs, did joke that it was “good to be
opening for R. Kelly again.”

The fest’s most curious social-media-stirring moment
occurred Sunday evening as M.I.A., amid a garishly colorful backdrop of
spinning wheels and neon lights, unveiled songs from her forthcoming
album, Matangi. A sea of cell phones rose to record her entrance;
many stayed aloft throughout. It was a departure in audience etiquette —
somewhat unexpectedly, much of the festival was free of such ubiquitous
use of technological interference.

Clad in a flashy gold top and orange short-shorts, M.I.A.
stalked the stage, often with dancers at her side, as bass-heavy
Dance-Rap arrangements thundered through the ample soundsystem with
almost netherworldly force. The ceaseless sonic assault pretty much
drowned out whatever she might have been trying to convey in her new
songs — which, based on the spottiness of her previous record and the
delayed release of Matangi, might be a good thing. Only when her
set was interrupted by technical glitches did she seem spontaneous or
even all that engaged. It was a weird, disjointed set, the kind of
whiz-bang spectacle that rarely rears its head at Pitchfork.

In contrast, Savages Saturday afternoon appearance was a
model of lacerating intensity. The buzzed-about British quartet — whose
recent debut Silence Yourself is a satisfying blast of
atmospheric Post Punk — was one of the most anticipated acts of fest.
They didn’t disappoint, delivering blistering versions of “I Am Here,”
“She Will” and “Fuckers,” a new song about not letting the “fuckers get
you down.”

Jehnny Beth is a captivating frontlady, her no-bullshit
stare and frequent high-pitched yelps lifting the music’s familiar
elements — everyone from Gang of Four and Patti Smith to Siouxsie Sioux
and PJ Harvey come immediately to mind — to uncharted heights. More
unexpected was the band’s tendency to evoke ’80s-era U2, which isn’t
necessarily a bad thing. Even more curious was Beth’s evocation of Ian
Curtis, both in terms of her appearance (lean with close-cropped hair)
and in some of her mannerisms (as if the music were transporting her
somewhere beyond the stage).

Michael Gira, Swans’ longtime ringleader, was impressed,
asking the audience, “How about them lady Savages?” before clapping in
appreciation. Gira’s band immediately followed Savages, and it was an
apt pairing, like opposite sides of the same coin. His crew of gifted
Post Punk vets — which includes a hairy multi-instrumentalist named Thor
and a suave German slide-guitar player who looks as though he’d be
right a home in a David Lynch flick — conjured an unholy racket during a
truncated version of “The Seer” and offered an inspired take on
“Oxygen,” which featured Gira doing a spooky Indian-like dance
throughout. While it was odd to witness Swans’ menacing, ebb-and-flow
soundscapes in broad daylight, the outdoor setting still left those in
attendance vibrating long after the band’s final drone leaked from the
speakers.

That brings us to the three headliners. The festival’s
mission — it attempts to highlight the most adventurous,
zeitgeist-channeling acts on the current landscape — makes choosing an
anchor to each day’s events a challenging dilemma for Pitchfork
organizers. Given the esoteric nature of many such music-makers, there
are only so many high-profile acts that fit the typical “headliner”
criteria. Past choices have included such Alt-Rock mainstays as Flaming
Lips, Spoon and Sonic Youth to more contemporary entries in the canon
like TV on the Radio, Animal Collective and LCD Soundsystem.

Pitchfork even had Yoko Ono headline one year, which makes
the choice of R. Kelly as Sunday night’s festival-closer even odder one
on multiple levels.First,
there’s the fact that Kelly — no doubt one of the most important R&B
artists of the era, and a Chicago native to boot — is the most
mainstream artist the festival has ever booked. Second, and far more
troubling for many, is Kelly’s reputation as a serial misogynist who
never got the legal reprimand he deserved.

The most vociferous critic has been longtime music writer
Jim DeRogatis, who broke the story of Kelly’s indiscretions while
working at the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002. DeRogatis called
Pitchfork’s decision to book Kelly and the subsequent excitement from
“some (not all) paying customers” as being “fueled by irony.”

No doubt there are legitimate questions about how an
artist’s personal issues should impact the way in which we experience
their music, but, for better or worse, those knotty questions were not
going to be answered during Kelly’s Pitchfork set.

In fact, based on the reaction of those in the massive
crowd — probably the festival’s largest ever — irony was not as
prevalent as DeRogatis wanted to profess. The overwhelming majority of
those in attendance, which ranged from fortysomething African-American
couples to teenage hipsters, seemed genuinely excited to be taking in
Kelly’s sextastic jams. The performance itself, meanwhile, was largely
standard-issue R&B stagecraft, as Kelly ran through much of his
extensive songbook medley-style (38 songs!). Not even a steady drizzle
of rain could dampen the mood, as many swayed and sang along straight
through to a set-closing version of“I Believe I Can Fly,” which was accompanied by the release of dove-shaped balloons.

If Kelly’s presentation was fairly straightforward,
Bjork’s closing set on Friday was anything but. Or so it seemed — unless
one was within 75 yards of the stage, it was hard to see what was going
on besides fleeting glimpses of Bjork’s elaborate headgear, which
looked like a porcupine lit up from within. Worse, the two video boards
that flanked the Green Stage were mounted too low, rendering them almost
useless to those they should intend to aid.

No matter: Bjork’s expressive voice was just as fluid and
otherworldly as one would expect on slightly reconfigured versions of
“Hunter,” “Joga” “Pagan Poetry” and “Army of Me.” When rain and pending
lightening and thunder prompted festival organizers to pull the plug
after an hour, Bjork responded with this curio: “It’s calm. I don’t
know. This wouldn’t be much in Iceland, I can tell you that much.”

It also rained on Belle and Sebastian Saturday night, but
not enough to cut short what was the festival’s most overt nod to
nostalgia. The Scottish crew ran through a career-spanning set that
crested early with rousing versions of “I’m a Cuckoo” and “The Stars of
Track and Field,” which had more than one thirtysomething couple
embracing amid all the tuneful sweetness.

One of the oldest free series of its kind in the region, the It’s Commonly Jazz
showcases have now been running for 28 years, presenting marquee
artists like Eddie Harris, McCoy Tyner, Javon Jackson and David
“Fathead” Newman.

The free series — running every Thursday in August (lucky
Jazz fans get five events this year) — returns to the outdoor Seasongood
Pavilion in Eden Park tonight. The opening show features renowned
saxophonist Craig Bailey.

Two very different weekend music fests kicks off tonight in Cincinnati

• Macy’s Music Festival — still often referred to locally as “Jazz Fest” as a nod to the fest’s roots (despite a complete lack of Jazz nowadays) — returns to downtown’s Paul Brown Stadium tonight and tomorrow.

The festival is a Cincinnati tradition, a true “event,” regardless of what music is featured (which may explain the lackluster booking rut the fest was in for a while). But this year’s Macy’s Music Fest has one of the best lineups in recent memory.

Charlie Wilson is fresh off of receiving the BET Awards' Lifetime Achievement honors.

And here's the crowd rockin' to Charlie at last year's Macy's Music Festival.

Saturday’s lineup features newcomer Leela James, KEM, Prince’s ol’ pals Morris Day and The Time, Fantasia and blockbuster headliner R. Kelly, an arena-worthy star fresh off of his odd but successful (despite the many "Pee on Me!" signs in the hipster audience) 38-song, headlining appearance at the Pitchfork music festival in Chicago. But … MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME!

Find more about the fest at macysmusicfestival.com. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Prices range from $40-$85 (only single-day tickets are available). Showtime is 7:30 p.m. each night.

• If your tastes trend more towards old-timey music and Bluegrass (and your wallet trends more towards empty), downtown's Arnold's is presenting the two-night Tito's Old Time Music Festival, running tonight and tomorrow. "Tito's" refers to sponsor Tito's Homemade Vodka, an Austin, Texas-produced spirits producer; Tito's reps will be on hand and Tito's drink specials will be plentiful. There will be also a chance to win an Epiphone acoustic guitar and purchase signed fest poster created by local poster-art great Keith Neltner.

You don't have to be a vodka enthusiast to attend — there is some great local Roots/Americana music each night. Tonight, Western Swing crew The Sidecars kick things off at 7:30 p.m., followed by My Brother the Bear, The Goodle Boys and AltCountry greats Terminal Union, which just released an amazing debut album, Making Arrangements (look for a review on this here blog soon).

After some reflection and recovery, CityBeat finally reviews Cincinnati's 2013 Bunbury Music Festival

BUNBURY MUSIC FEST: DAY 1

After months of rising anticipation and weeks of weirdly intermittent and torrential rain, Bunbury's first day looked to be a winner. A great announced lineup, no precipitation in the forecast and nothing but sunshine expected for the day; against all odds, that's exactly what we got. But it wasn't the rain to come that presented a problem, it was the rain that had already fallen; the area on the Serpentine Wall that had perfectly pocketed the Rockstar Stage last year was completely swallowed by the rising Ohio River, and the stage had to be moved to the opposite end of the field housing the all important Main Stage. It turned out to be a pretty decent fix, all things considered.

After securing my Level Three media pass (which, in the hierarchy of accessibility, I think meant that if any band needed help moving equipment, I was obligated to roadie for them), I headed for the Bud Light stage for Public. I had done a story on them back in January; they were home for Christmas so given their proximity, they came to my house and we did the interview in my basement. My daughter had answered the door and let them in, and for weeks afterward she was telling her friends about the cute guys I had interviewed at the house. Public's teenage girl effect was fully evident at their Bunbury appearance, as squealy females shrieked their appreciation for every song, and randomly shouted "I love you!"s arced over the rather sizable crowd. The trio did songs from their self-titled EP, a new tune called "Honey Bee" and, taking a page from the infinitely talented and creatively twisted Richard Thompson, offered a thunderously blazing turn on Britney Spears' "Toxic." In the studio, Public has the sound of a ramped up Modest Mouse, but in the live arena, they definitely blister and kick a little closer to the Led Zeppelin vibe they claimed as inspiration during our conversation, adding a dollop of harmonic Pop to sweeten the deal. If teenage girls are any indicator — and they usually are — Public could be headed for Walk the Moon territory pretty quickly.

Next up, it was Alone at 3AM at the Lawn Stage. I love these guys; super solid, crunchy heartland Indie Pop/Rock that states its case without a lot of unnecessary flash or padding. The band had plodded along for close to seven years before solidifying a dedicated line-up behind vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Max Fender and bassist Joey Beck and moving forward; a good deal of growth occurred with the additions of Sarah Davis on keys and Chris Mueller on drums (and business savvy). That in turn lit a fire under Fender, leading to a pair of albums in the last three years — 2010's Cut Your Gills and last year's Midwest Mess.

For A@3's Bunbury slot, the quintet was showing off their new guitarist; Clay Cason's recent departure left a gap which has been admirably filled by Jake Tippey, taking a busman's holiday from his howling duties in the Frankl Project and proving every bit as valuable in a Pop/Rock context. The band roared through songs from their most recent albums, introduced a couple of new songs (Chris mentioned after the show that A@3 would be working on an EP, and then tracking a new full length for imminent release) and even dipped back into their debut album, City Out of Luck, for a spin through "Mexico." Max's gruff voice sits comfortably in the Paul Westerberg/Bruce Springsteen range and it's the perfect vehicle for expressing his blue collar love-and-life songs. Can't wait to hear the new stuff in the studio, kids.

Before setting out for the Rockstar Stage, I caught the opening of Ohio Knife, one of Cincinnati's brightest new entities. Initially a side project for the Chocolate Horse, vocalist/guitarist Jason Snell, guitarist Andrew Higley and drummer Joe Suer — who all played together in Readymaid as well — ultimately put the Horse in the stable to concentrate on the Punk-scrubbed Blues of Ohio Knife, and with good reason. The trio is a sweat-soaked hurricane in the studio (their 2012 EP was a marvel), but the live translation hits with the force and heat of a flamethrower in an ammunition dump, and it won't be long before the CEA nominees for Best New Artist wind up taking home some bling. Where are we with the full length, guys?

After a quick shot of Ohio Knife, it was time to motor to the other end of the festival to check out the Dunwells. The UK outfit fronted by, logically enough, the Dunwell brothers, has found a good deal of success with their debut album, Blind Sighted Faith, and its ubiquitous single "I Could Be a King." When they played the single, frontman Joseph Dunwell thanked Q102 for their support, but it bears pointing out that, WNKU has been beating the drum for the Dunwells for quite some time now (just as they had for the similarly Folk/Pop toned Mumford & Sons). That being said, the age of the crowd seemed to indicate that Q102's demographic was probably best represented here today, so perhaps the win should be scored in their column after all. However the commissioner decides to rule, the Dunwells put together a crisp and wonderfully vibrant set that pays homage to the West Coast sounds of the Eagles and CSNY. The one exception to that sonic blueprint is the aforementioned "I Could Be a King," which offers an irresistable Pop edge that shimmers like the best of Crowded House. When brother David Dunwell strapped on the old five string to play the hit, he noted wryly, "I think every Englishman should at some point come to America and stand in front of an American audience holding a banjo with no idea how to play it." I think he was being graciously self-deprecating. The Dunwells seemed to go down a storm and I think they would find a large and enthusiastic audience if they returned outside of the auspices of the Bunbury Festival. Quick note: If you see a Dunwells album titled Follow the Road in stores (for you youngsters, a building where your parents buy music) or online, it is actually a re-sequenced and remixed version of Blind Sighted Faith, with a few alternate versions tossed in for flavor.

I briefly considered heading over to the Bud Light Stage to see some of Everest (a pick from Bunbury worker bee extraordinaire Jacob Heintz), but opted to check out a bit of Tegan and Sara at the Main Stage before making a definite decision.

I've interviewed both Quin twins over the years — most recently, I talked to Sara the year after the release of 2009's Sainthood — and while I lean toward their early work as far as my personal taste is concerned, their last trio of albums have been fairly well stacked with radio-friendly Pop songs with the potential to reach a massive audience. The enormous turnout for their Bunbury set would seem to support their decision to go the pure Pop route, but the fact is that Tegan and Sara have been cultivating a large and diverse audience for the past decade and a half, and their synth-driven Pop direction was not enough of a departure to alienate any portion of their slavishly loyal fan base. Predictably, the bulk of their set was devoted to Heartthrob, along with faves from The Con and Sainthood; they also reached all the way back to 2002's If It Was You for "Living Room" and they threw in a cover of Tiesto's "Feel It in My Bones," on which they originally guested. As expected, the adrenaline and volume of the live experience ferments Tegan and Sara's sugary Pop confections into something with a little more bite. Even for those who weren't completely sold on their recent work (my hand is up), Tegan and Sara's live presentation could make you see the light.

After T&S, it was time to hit the Amphitheater Stage to see Buffalo Killers. If you missed seeing the James Gang in 1971, here's your chance. Because I'm old enough to have actually missed the James Gang (with Joe Walsh, that is; I was lucky enough to see the even rarer sight of the James Gang with Tommy Bolin. Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls …) that joke is only marginally funny. Luckily, Buffalo Killers have approximated the trio's fuzzy guitar assault and maniacally furious rhythm section here in the 21st century to give an indication of what Joe and the boys might have sounded like if they had stayed together a little longer and gelled a little better. And even though Buffalo Killers have managed to inject a bit of poppy sunshine into their bunker-busting sound, in the live arena the band still rumbles and shoots like a rhythmic Sherman tank. The Killers hit all of my teenage buttons (which were installed long ago and have never been fully deactivated, same as every man on the planet, I suppose) and any opportunity to witness their feedback-through-an-elephant-gun glory is a chance to time machine back to the days when electric dinosaurs roamed the earth and their squalling racket could be heard from sweaty and sparsely attended auditoriums to densely populated arenas. I love Buffalo Killers. They remind me that there is wisdom in remembering the past, joy in celebrating the present and excitement in anticipating the future.

After a brief stroll around the grounds to grab something to eat, it was back to the Amphitheater Stage for a healthy dose of Rock hard Americana with Those Darlins. The Nashville outfit has been down a Darlin since early last year when Kelley Anderson opted out of the band to pursue other musical projects (her new group, Grand Strand, got a good buzz after touring with Richard Lloyd last year), and her amicable departure has obviously changed the group's dynamic, particularly the absence of their signature three-part harmonies. The remaining Darlins — Jessi (Wariner), Nikki (Kvarnes) and drummer Linwood Regensberg — are carrying on with the-show-must-go-on determination; new bassist Adrian Barrera seems to be slotting in quite well and Those Darlins' core sound, along the lines of the Pandoras if they'd been influenced by Wanda Jackson and the Ramones, remains largely intact. Their Bunbury set did display a good deal more Rock and a good deal less twang than you'll find on their first two albums — 2009's Those Darlins and 2011's Screws Get Loose — and it's a safe bet that the new album they're currently working on will follow that blueprint as well. No one at the Amphitheater seemed too dismayed at the shift, particularly the hyperactive dance contingent in front of the stage. Two Darlins is clearly enough Darlins to make Those Darlins.

I bailed out of Those Darlins a bit early to make the long walk back to the Rockstar Stage to take in the Gypsy Jazz goodness of DeVotchKa. I've long been a fan of the Denver-based outfit (I came to them through 2004's How It Ends, fell in love with their version of the Velvets' "Venus in Furs" from the Curse Your Little Heart EP and adored their work in Little Miss Sunshine) but have never had the opportunity to see them in the flesh, and when I saw them on the Bunbury schedule, I knew there was little that could draw me away from their show. Luckily, their 9 p.m. slot meant they weren't programmed against anyone else, so the way was cleared for my first live DeVotchKa experience.

DeVotchKa lived up to and surpassed all advance billing with a set that walked the wire between frenetic and atmospheric but maintained high energy from start to finish. Even when they slowed the pace, there was an electric tension in their presentation that made clear something explosive could happen at any moment. And it usually did. All four members of the band — Nick Urata, Jeanie Schroder, Tom Hagerman, Shawn King — play multiple instruments so almost any sound is available to DeVotchKa, including theremin, boukouki, accordion, trumpet and Melodica. And Schroder does the heaviest lifting, either plucking with power and subtlety on her enormous upright bass or blowing away like Dizzy Gillespie on steroids into a gigantic sousaphone that looks as though it would be the punishment instrument for getting bad grades in high school band ("Okay, Baker, D in Orchestra, 10 solos with the death tuba..."). It wasn't a performance to analyze or interpret, it was a Gypsy Jazz soundtrack for a magic show, a feeling to wash over you like cool waves on warm sand, a Slavic Rock and Roll dance party. More than a few people on DeVotchKa's Facebook page declared it the best show of Bunbury's three-day weekend. It was most assuredly one of them.

Finally, it was time for fun. Not the fun that we'd been having all day at Bunbury, but the fun. that's topping the charts and recently played Saturday Night Live and won a couple of Grammys this year. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of the band. I like their sound to a certain extent, it's energetic and entertaining and I really like Nate Reuss' voice. I actually interviewed him a decade ago when he was fronting the Format; ironically and perhaps presciently, he used the word "fun" a half dozen times to describe his band at the time.

At any rate, I hung around to see the show to be able to report how it was to my daughter, and because the band clearly doesn't take itself too seriously. When they accepted their Record of the Year Grammy for "We Are Young," Reuss said, "I don't know what I was thinking, writing the chorus for this song. If this is in HD, everybody can see our faces, and we are not very young." All in all, I was expecting a pleasant if unassuming concert experience.

And that's pretty much how it started, with the "Some Nights" intro, the title track to their sophomore album (it would show up in its entirety during the band's two-song encore, leading into "One Foot" from Some Nights). In fact, fun. performed almost all of Some Nights (save for "All Alright"), and over half of their debut album, 2009's Aim and Ignite, perhaps best represented by "At Least I'm Not as Sad (as I Used to Be)" and the nearly eight-minute closer, "Take Your Time (Coming Home)." Of course, they saved their anthemic signature singles for the second half of the set, first "Carry On" and then, two songs later, the epic Grammy-winning Pop of "We Are Young." Sandwiched in between though was a very charming version of The Rolling Stones’ "You Can't Always Get What You Want," an interesting lead-in to "We Are Young," a song that would seem to sport a diametrically opposed message. By the time fun. concluded with "Stars" as the second song of their encore, they had fired a confetti cannon (there was still yards of fun. confetti on the field when The National played Sunday night), performed the majority of their two studio albums and put on a show that proved they were worthy of their first-night-closing status. While I think they should remove the rather severe punctuation from their name, I have to say I was at least slightly converted toward a fun. lifestyle.

Third round of additions to this September's MPMF Spotify playlist now live

With last week's third round of announcements of artists confirmed for this September's MidPoint Music Festival, the official MPMF Spotify playlist has been updated. Check out newly-added tunes from just-announced artists Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Nicholas David, Snowmine, Vandaveer, Pure X, Young Empires, Helado Negr, Bear's Den, Gauntlet Hair and more below.

Stay tuned to MPMF's socialmedia outlets and official website (and this here blog) for the latest fest news. Tickets are available now through CincyTicket.com here. MidPoint is also featured in Consequence of Sound's "Festival Outlook" here.

As has been the case with MPMF for the past few years, the closer we get to the fest, the more attention MPMF artists seem to get. This week, for example, the great music blog The Wild Honey Pie released its "Top 15 Albums of 2013 (So Far)" list, an entire THIRD of which consists of MidPoint 2013 performers (Kurt Vile, On an On, Foxygen, Daughter and Caveman). Smart peeps, those Wild Honey Pie folks!

Everything you need to know about the second annual Bunbury fest at Sawyer Point

One of the Midwest’s best new music fests, Cincinnati’s
own Bunbury Music Festival, presents its second annual event this
weekend. With another stellar lineup for the three-day affair —
including headliners like Fun., MGMT and Cincinnati-bred Indie Rock
stars The National (whose latest album debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s album chart), plus a great number of Greater Cincinnati’s top acts — a “sophomore slump” seems impossible.

Shows run Friday-Sunday and start at 2 p.m. Gates open at 1
p.m. each day. Tickets are $65 or $130 for three-day passes. (Kids 10
and under are free with a paying adult.) Keep your wristband on; Bunbury
allows re-entry, if you need to run to the car and pound a 40, er, grab
a sandwich.

From BunburyFestival.com, here is what is and isn't permitted to bring to Bunbury:

What to Bring (Allowed Items)

Sun Gear (e.g., sunglasses, sunscreen, etc.)

Seating (e.g., folding chair, blanket, etc.)

Bug Repellent (no Deet)

Rain Gear (ponchos are best, but small, hand-held umbrellas are OK)

Earplugs

Baby strollers

Empty water bottled (no glass) or Cambelbak

Binoculars

Wall mounted rapid charger (charging stations provide
iPhone and mini-USB chords, but if you have your own chord, you won't
have to wait)

There's more fun AFTER Bunbury at the Bunbury official after-parties, with loads of drink specials and no cover charge. Tonight, DJ Ice Cold Tony will spin at the official after-party at downtown's Igby's. Tomorrow, Bunbury performers Chairlift will DJ the after-party at aliveOne in Mt. Adams. And Sunday's after-party at downtown's The Righteous Room will have DJing by great Cincy Electro duo You, You're Awesome. (Friday and Saturday's parties start at approximately 11 p.m.; Sunday's starts at around 10 p.m.)